First Haircut

I took 18-month-old Katarina for her first haircut on September 15th. We went to Little Bs, a kids' salon just around the corner from Bella's gymnastics class.

Kati loved "driving" the airplane and watching the television while she got her hair cut. She didn't want to get down afterwards, so I let her sit there for pictures.

When we got home, Bella hung a bow on the doorknob, and Kati reached up on her tip-toes to get it. It was so adorable, I took a picture.

The other girls also got haircuts this month. I took Bella to the kids' salon right after gymnastics one day, so she was still wearing her leotard. Bella asked for a pink ribbon and a blue ribbon.

Bella is very interested in dance and ballet these days, so she was showing me some dance moves while I took her picture.

Gabi was glad to have her hair cut at the same salon as her sisters. She asked for a braid in her hair. Gabi looks so grown-up!

First Lost Tooth

On Wednesday, Sept.7th, shortly after we put the girls to bed, we heard Bella calling, "Mommy! Daddy! Gabi needs one of you!" Gabi had lost her first tooth!

Michael and I spent the rest of the evening trying to find where we might have packed Gabi's special Tooth Fairy pillow when we moved. Although we were unable to locate it, the Tooth Fairy came anyway and left Gabi a golden dollar coin. We definitely have to find her treasured pillow before she loses another tooth! Gabi proudly smiled for this picture before school the next morning to show off her missing tooth.

4 Years Old

Annabelle celebrated her 4th birthday on August 25th! At her 4-year check-up the following day, she weighed 34 lbs 6 oz and measured 39 ¾ inches tall (both 50th percentile).

We walked Gabi to school that morning, and got Bella a new scooter to try out.

Then Lolo and Lola arrived and took us to breakfast at Snooze.

Bella got a candle in her Peaches 'n Cream French Toast!

Bella's biggest birthday present was a brand new balance bike!

She enjoyed testing out the balance bike on the Greenway by our house.

The girls' new bunkbed was delivered on Bella's birthday, and Daddy and Lolo put it together.

Over the weekend, Lolo, Lola, Tita Chrissie, cousins Joseph and Katelyn, and Bella's godparents Aunt Ashley and Uncle Patrick all attended a family birthday party for Bella.

Bella selected a Princess Tiana birthday cake design.

The kids spent much time playing with all of Bella's Playdoh toys.

Bella with her godparents, Ashley and Patrick:

Fairy princess Bella, with her new fairy dress, her new petticoat, and a new tiara:

Back to School

In mid-August, we went to Gabi's elementary school to see her classroom and meet her teacher. Kati found the reading nook!

Gabi's teacher is great! She has high expectations for behavior, she differentiates work based on each child's level (and, of course, Gabi tested advanced for a first grader), and she really cares about the kids and understands what is important to them. She has experience as a Highly Gifted and Talented teacher, too.

Last year, she spent the year teaching in Abu Dhabi in the UAE -- AWESOME! She sometimes uses an Arabic phrase to get the children's attention, which Gabi tried to teach me.

Four weeks ago, Bella started PreK three days a week. She is a bit sad that she doesn't get to go to the same school as Gabi, but the public Early Childhood Education classes (at all three elementary schools in our neighborhood!) are all full.

Bella is in an excellent PreK class at a private preschool down the street, though, and we are very happy with it. Annabelle's teacher has great classroom management skills, really encourages the kids, and uses a fabulous curriculum that incorporates everything from Spanish to gardening, from dancing to recycling. Her spelling is a bit poor, but the kids are too young to notice. She seems to be able to take everything in stride when something doesn't go as planned, and I'm sure that's often the case with a classroom full of 4-year-olds.

Gabi started school four days after Bella, so she's been in first grade for three and a half weeks now. Her school playground has a map of the United States painted on the blacktop, where she posed in Colorado on her first day of school.

Each girl's school is about half a mile away, but in opposite directions. We can take walking/biking trails through the Greenway the whole way, and we only cross one street to get to each school. That adds up to four miles of exercise a day! Sometimes I cheat and drive Bella, though. I did get a bike trailer to put the little ones in so we can bike instead of walk, and that goes much faster.

Gabi's school doesn't start until 9 AM (first bell rings at 8:55), so we have plenty of time in the morning to get ready and even pause for a picture on our front porch. Bella doesn't always cooperate, though. I try to get Bella to school by 8:30, since her class starts circle time then.

My three girls on our front porch before walking to school:

St. Louis

Michael's aunt, Sister Lourdes Maria, celebrated her 25th anniversary as a nun with a Mass on August 13th. We all traveled to St. Louis to celebrate with her and to introduce baby Katarina to her.

The nuns at Mount Grace Convent are cloistered, so they must stay behind bars which symbolize their separation from the rest of the world.

Michael's mom and her brother, Paco, brought the gifts for communion to their sister. For this special occasion, they were also invited to take a speaking part in the Mass, which allowed them to go behind the bars and up onto the altar. Michael's parents were the lectors, Michael prayed the intercessions, and his uncle gave a speech about Sister Lulu.

Many family and friends were able to gather for this festivity, making it a real party. Christine was able to travel to St. Louis from Seattle, too! We always love seeing her.

Sister Lourdes wore a crown of pink roses in honor of her 25th anniversary, and she made one just like it for Bella to wear since her birthday was less than two weeks later.

As always, the nuns provided plenty of good food and drinks for everyone to enjoy.

I brought a suitcase full of quiet activities for the girls to enjoy, since we basically spent the whole weekend in the basement of the convent in this one large room, visiting with the nuns (who stayed behind a symbolic grate). I went a little overboard, as the girls didn't even touch half of the items I brought. The kids definitely enjoyed our weekend trip, though, so it was a success.

Gabi impressed the nuns by reading a VeggieTales story about Esther.

Kati even took her nap at the convent.

Tita Chrissie posed for one last picture with her nieces in the garden before leaving the convent.

Cookie Experiment

We tried this on Gabi when she was Bella's age. Annabelle just celebrated her 4th birthday, so now it's her turn.

Bella had asked to bake some cookies, so Michael helped her in the kitchen. Then, of course, she wanted to eat her cookies. Can she prevent herself from eating the cookie on her plate in order to earn a second cookie later?



Notice how well Annabelle is attending to Michael at the beginning. I'd like to point out that, initially, Michael put a cookie in front of her and said, "You can eat this now if you want to." Bella promptly picked up the cookie and took a bite, before Michael could explain the deal. Ha-ha! So he took the cookie away, restarted the video, and tried again. :) You decide whether that counts as being able to delay gratification.

Michael added the annotations. My favorite is the caption at 1:02 -- "Kid instinct: see cookie, must eat. Oh... right... waiting..."

I love Bella's tactic here. "Okay, so I get one cookie now, or two cookies after you go on a walk... so... can I go on a walk with you? Or, better yet, while I'm waiting, can I ride in the chariot behind Mommy's bike?" We just bought the chariot (bike trailer), and the family we bought it from forgot to bring the flag that helps cars see the trailer, so she'll have to bring that part later.

"Okay, fine, so I don't get to go on the walk. I guess I'm supposed to sit here. I'll just... go potty. And then... I'll try talking to Mommy, who I can't see, but I know she's in the other room."

Man, it was heart-breaking to have to ignore her when she tried to strike up an unrelated conversation! "Mommy, what's your favorite animal?" Oh, she looks so sad in the video when I didn't respond to her at all!

But, again, she's a smart girl. If she can't eat the cookie now, why bother sitting there? She goes to find me (and I feign sleep). But then Daddy returns, so she quickly runs back as if her self-control might not count if she didn't stay at the table by the cookie.

18 Months

Today, Katarina Lillian is 18 months old! She weighs 20 lbs 2 oz (less than 5th percentile), measures 30 inches tall (10th percentile), and her head circumference is 17 ¾ cm (15th percentile). She just cut her first canine tooth, and the rest will follow soon.

Her receptive language and motor skills are excellent. I love watching her follow verbal commands such as "Throw this in the trash." When I put hot food on her tray, she signs hot and blows on it. She enjoys all the outdoor time we get walking the kids to school and playing on our block. She communicates using signs, pointing, some words, and (of course) tantrums. She can say: "no", "uh-oh," "more", "sister", "ball", "book", "shoes", "up", "down", "hi", "bye", "Mama", "Dada", and "What's that?"

In these pictures, she is wearing a Dizzie Izzie dress, which is locally-made and locally popular. We found it at the Sweet William Market on the Green in our neighborhood. As usual, I'm about a month behind on blog posts, but I wanted to share this growth milestone of my baby since she is growing so quickly.